21 



of artificial hatching. But of this you are a better judge than I can 

 be." 



While not agreeing with this intelligent fisherman as to the pro- 

 priety of shortening the close season, we fully concur as to the 

 absolute necessity of a patrol to prevent unlawful fishing while the 

 salmon are passing up to their spawning grounds. We also concur 

 in his suggestion that the salmon should be protected on their breed- 

 ing beds. The most important spawning ground left in this State is 

 the McCloud River, in Shasta County. Its banks are mainly com- 

 posed of lava and limestone, and, so far as known, they contain no 

 mines. By some inadvertence or intentional manipulation, this 

 county was exempted from the law creating a close season for salmon, 

 and the fish are persistently taken in this county for market, while 

 ill the act of reproduction on their spaw^ning beds. We respectfully 

 urge that Shasta County be reincorporated in the law, and that no 

 salmon be allowed to be taken there during the close season, except 

 for purposes of artificial propagation. 



The Chinese and others continue to use nets of a mesh much finer 

 than is allowed by law, and the young of all kinds of salt water fish 

 that spawn in the bays and estuaries, are persistently caught, dried, 

 and shipped to China. The records of the Custom House show that 

 there were shipped to China, from San Francisco, during the year 

 ending July first, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, dried fish 

 and dried shell fish valued at two hundred and ninety-three thousand 

 nine hundred and seventy-one dollars. 



We have caused several arrests to be made for violations of this 

 law, but it is impossible for the Commissioners to act as local police 

 on all parts of the bay and rivers, and w^e see no remedy except in 

 increasing the penalties for violations of the law, involving even, if 

 necessary, the destruction of the nets, when used out of season. 

 Unless in some way the wise provisions of the statute are compelled 

 to be observed, we can see no reason why our present abundance of 

 fish will not decrease, as they have decreased in other States, in con- 

 sequence of the disregard of w^ise enactments made for their preserva- 

 tion and increase. Ordinarily salmon should reach their spawning 

 grounds on the McCloud and Little Sacramento by the twentieth of 

 August. As will be seen by the statistics heretofore stated, the catch 

 was never so great as during the past fishing season. At the com- 

 mencement of the close season, August first, the river was filled with 

 fish, yet they were not permitted to reach their spawning places. 

 Mr. Myron Green, the deputy in charge of the United States fish 

 hatching establishment on the McCloud, reported, September 

 fifteenth, that there were ten salmon in the McCloud in eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-six to one in eighteen hundred and seventy- 

 seven. Up to that time but five million eggs had been taken, _whi_le 

 nearly ten million had been taken in a corresponding period in 

 eighteen hundred and seventy-six. The fish were in the Lower 

 Sacramento more numerous than ever before, but they were caught, 

 canned, salted, and smoked, in defiance of the law. It is estimated 

 that the "canneries" took fifty thousand after the first of August, 

 and that there were salted and smoked on the banks of the sloughs 

 and other by-places, at least one hundred thousand more. If this is 

 to continue,' the Government hatching works will have to be removed 

 to the Columbia, and we will be compelled to import eggs from some 



